Solar Orbiter

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  Menu

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  2D interface

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  2D interface

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  3D interface

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  3D interface

Inspiration

I was curious how to include orbital motion and physics in a program so I thought of this idea to challenge myself. I am also interested in space and astronomy so this was a fun project to work on because it reflects my interests.

What it does

Simulates our solar system in 2D and 3D. It has options for speed, size, movement to show the orbits, axial tilts, and planet labels, as well as descriptions of each planet/sun. I also included an fps tracker so I can monitor the runtime of the program.

How I built it

Using Java object-oriented programing and a bit of the java 3D library. I was helped to gradle the whole program together into a .jar file.

Challenges I ran into

The java 3D did not run with the graphics panel I was using for the rest of the project so I had to create a new panel just for the 3D element and was unfortunately not able to add all the other features to it such as the orbits, axial tilts, descriptions, and labels.

Accomplishments that I'm proud of

Getting the transition from 2D to 3D to work in the java GUI

What I learned

How to use java 3D and integrating it with the rest of my program.

Built With

• eclipse
• gradle
• java
• java3d